Fav gameplay mod+wad Combo?

[Peppypoppy]

One of my favorite things to do in Doom is to find the perfect gameplay mod for wads I've been meaning to revisit. It makes a 2nd or 3rd playthrough feel almost as fresh as the first, and usually end up as some of my fondest experiences with the game. Some of my current favs include:

 

Augur Zenith + Highway Accelerated Booster

Scythe 2 + Demonsteele

Unloved + Voyage Infernal

 

I was hoping to hear if any of you have found your own favorite blends. Could be in terms of gameplay, theme, whatever!

[LuciferSam86]

I would say :

High noon drifter + Schythe 2

 

Otherwise the Universal gameplay mods for me are :

DRLA

Final Doomer +

La tailor girl 

 

[Hitboi]

For me it's Final Doomer Plus with any megawad it's based on, or Brutal Doom with vanilla-compatible wads.

[gwain]

power guns.wad + rainbowfactory.pk3

Edited January 30, 2022 by gwain
new favroite

[DiR]

I like to keep the default gameplay most of the time, so I just have a couple of minor QoL mods that are compatible with just about anything:

- Tilt++ (That little bit of tilt just adds so much)

- Sound Caulking

- All Clear Message

- Nashgore

 

Sometimes if I'm feeling spicy then I slap some of these on top:

- Target Spy (when I'm up against lots of custom monsters)

- Damage Direction Overlay

- Damage Numbers

- Final Doomer+ (JPCP guy is my personal fave to play as)

[Quill]

Doom Delta + DTWID: Lost Episodes

 

D4V + Doom 2 in Name Only

Edited January 26, 2022 by dotQLL

[Somniac]

Shadows of Cronos + Hexen Rebalanced

 

Beautiful Doom + anything 

[Captain POLAND]

Okuplok + Russian Overkill

 

Preferable with 'Disturbed - Indestructible' playing in the background.

[BGreener]

There’s too many to count for me, but one that stuck out was getting introduced to Hideous Destructor via Diablus Ex.

[Teo Slayer]

Russian Overkill + Any slaughtermap

Smooth Doom + Any Vanilla WAD

Brutal Doom + Remakes like Ultimate Doom 2, Doom 2 Rebuild, EDay etc

Final Doomer + Plutonia/TNT/JPCP/Hellbound/Alien Vendetta/Ancient Aliens/BTSX

[Peppypoppy]

Lots of great answers here! I think Final Doomer looks like the exact thing I was looking for (any excuse to replay BTSX is good for me)! Thanks for all the cool answers folks!

 

15 hours ago, ctlcdn said:

I just have a couple of minor QoL mods that are compatible with just about anything:

- Tilt++ (That little bit of tilt just adds so much)

- Sound Caulking

- All Clear Message

- Nashgore

Also, thanks for this @ctlcdn! You answered a question I didn't realize I had. Just tried tilt++ for a couple of minutes and wow, what a game changer!

[continuum.mid]

I rarely use gameplay mods, but here are two combos I've enjoyed:

• Final Doomer (as JPCPguy) + Water Spirit. JPCP itself works well, being the WAD it's designed for, but I think Water Spirit, which I consider a sort of "sequel" to JPCP, fits the aesthetic even better.
• Doom 4 Vanilla + Perdition's Gate. I recorded a video of this combination a while back, it's a vanilla-friendly mod that works well with such simple maps.

Edited January 27, 2022 by northivanastan

[Nefelibeta]

superweapon.deh + any wad

very fun

[flamming_python]

On 1/26/2022 at 5:37 AM, Peppypoppy said:

One of my favorite things to do in Doom is to find the perfect gameplay mod for wads I've been meaning to revisit. It makes a 2nd or 3rd playthrough feel almost as fresh as the first, and usually end up as some of my fondest experiences with the game. Some of my current favs include:

 

Augur Zenith + Highway Accelerated Booster

Scythe 2 + Demonsteele

Unloved + Voyage Infernal

 

I was hoping to hear if any of you have found your own favorite blends. Could be in terms of gameplay, theme, whatever!

 

Well then you're in luck as I'm going to use this thread to make notes of great and fitting wad + mod combinations I've discovered.

 

I'll kick things off

 

Name: Brutal Lost Civilization

Source Port: GZDoom

Wads/Mods: (in this load order)

https://www.moddb.com/mods/brutal-doom/downloads/brutal-doom-v21-beta

https://www.moddb.com/mods/brutal-doom/addons/tomtefars-extension

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fdoBdPRwDbI_O01DFEm8FXZW9gwu59CY/view

Description:

The wide open maps and long-range combat of Lost Civilization go together excellently with the iron-sights and scopes offered by Brutal Doom weapons. The enhanced enemy AI makes the enemies a threat when you close the distance so you'll rightly tempted to keep them at stand-off range. That's not always possible though and this is what adds spice to the combo. Presentation wise, the gore-fest and horror of Brutal Doom stands in complete contrast with the picturesque setting and calming MIDI soundtracks of Lost Civilization - sort of like paradise having gone badly wrong. Works too :)

Settings:

Mouselook on, crouching/jumping off. No crosshairs (rely on iron-sights/scopes instead). No texture filtering, but keep most graphics settings on GZDoom defaults. Keep the lighting either on dark or set it to standard or legacy; but resist the temptation to use any flashlight addons or keybinds - flashlights can provoke teleport ambushes in this wad. For the brutal doom settings you are free to adjust them to your preference, although I would switch off rescuable marines to keep with the thematic setting of the wad.

Incompatibilities:

There is a custom enemy introduced by Lost Civilization in one of the later levels, but they are only present on 1-2 maps. I haven't got there yet, so I can't tell you how it will conflict with Brutal Doom. Likely nothing substantial.

Performance:

The combination of the multiple huge maps, the brutal doom graphical effects and all the carnage created can be quite demanding, although any semi-decent rig shouldn't struggle. Adjust graphics and gore/projectile settings otherwise. Mobile devices are unlikely to be able to handle it, particularly on the larger more open maps.

Difficulty:

Your biggest problem will be the tighter spaces and the various teleport ambushes. I'd say start things off at a lower difficulty level that you would otherwise for Lost Civilization, or that you're accustomed to. But encounters seldom feel unfair or unbalanced; it just requires skill and situational awareness.

Edited June 19, 2022 by flamming_python

[flamming_python]

Name: 2002 A Doom Rogue-like Odyssey

Source Port: GZDoom/LZDoom

Wads/Mods: (in this load order)

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=37044 (use both the main mod and the monster pack)

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=70549

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=49684

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom/Ports/megawads/2002ad10

Description:

2002 A Doom Odyssey is a quality Ultimate Doom megawad made in the quiet mid-period of doom modding; way back in the early 2000s. It set out to be very much a vanilla doom wad that echoes the maps and episodes of the first game and that's precisely what it accomplishes. But along with that it also inherits the easy difficulty settings that today's Doom veterans would scoff at, none of the Doom 2 extra enemies that people have been accustomed to, and just in general an experience that everyone has played to death already, even if done competently and with twists in relation to the original Ultimate Doom episodes.

Playing with the DRLA mod essentially fixes these problems. It introduces weapons variety, some surprises with hard monster variants and RPG mechanics for your character and equipment. Only it doesn't let you become too powerful as new chapters force the player to start over.

Settings:

Mouselook on, crouching/jumping off. Crosshairs on. Go for the retro graphics look here. So low-res (although not the very lowest 320x200 as that would make the PDA text unreadable). No texture filtering, palette tonemap mode, light mode standard or doom, banded SW lightmode on, rendering quality to quality, fuzz style to pixel fuzz, dynamic lights off, rocket trails off, number of decals to 0. For the DRLA options, if you have something in mind then go for it, else leave them at defaults.

Incompatibilities:

None that I know of

Performance:

Piece of cake. Even mid-tier mobile devices should be able to handle this combo with all the specified graphics options/filters playing on LZDoom in the Delta Touch app.

Difficulty:

It's somewhat more difficult than the original 2002 A Doom Odyssey albeit not by too much. Just enough to take this wad seriously rather. And of course if you want to enforce roguelike rules and avoid saving at all apart from when you finish your session, then all the more so.

Edited June 19, 2022 by flamming_python

[flamming_python]

Name: Unfamiliar: Project Malice Edition

Source Port: GZDoom

Wads/Mods: (in this load order)

https://discord.com/invite/56TVU7K (get the latest release from the pm-download section of the discord channel)

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=70984

https://www.mediafire.com/file/42mbnq6y0sk1dzq/NL_Extra_Guns_280322.rar/file

https://www.wad-archive.com/wad/Hell-s-Ambiance

Description:

The Unfamiliar wad is essentially a retelling of Ultimate Doom with more advanced graphical effects, more believable environments and more gore & horror elements to add to the atmosphere. With Doom assets and music alone, I feel that what it's going for is somewhat ruined however, or rather doesn't live up to its potential.

You're never going to make a scary game out of Doom (although PSX Doom did come close back when I was a kid). It's fundamentally an action experience. But you can certainly add survival horror elements and amp up all sorts of creepy effects.

This is what you get first of all with Project Malice; an advanced monster swap with multiple variants for each monster type, every one of which is more disturbing than the base Doom enemies - not to mention more troublesome to deal with.

Nightmare Logic is next; adding a limited set of weapons, each of which pack substantial power, but limiting you in ammo capacity, introducing aiming instability over longer distances, requiring reloads and so on.

Finally, a harrowing soundtrack to seal the deal.

Settings:

Mouselook on, crouching/jumping off. Crosshairs off (you will be thankful for the laser sights on the weapons that have them). No texture filtering, light mode dark or doom. Put all the dynamic lighting options, shadowmaps, lightmaps, whatever - to the maximum your rig can handle. Enable all the bloom, ambient occlusion effects and nice post-processing touches you can too. In the Nightmare Logic settings make sure you have the recoil enabled and all the graphical effects too.

Incompatibilities: 

The title screen of Unfamiliar is taken over by the solid black backdrop of the Nightmare Logic but that's only a token shame. The bigger question seems to be how the difficulty settings of the map are hijacked by Nightmare Logic too; with its selection of classes to denote difficulty. Does selecting different classes change things other than the power of your starting arsenal?

Performance: 

You'll need a somewhat decent computer to handle the combo with the settings I've suggested. Some of the maps are pretty heavy on the effects (e.g. the start area of E3M1). But there's nothing overly demanding here on the whole. The maps aren't huge nor are there going to be thousands of projectiles on screen.

If you have a very high-end mobile device you might be able to get it running at a good speed with all the graphical goodness enabled on that too.

Difficulty:

Enemies go down easily to your firepower but they can take you down just as easily if you're not careful. Or you can take yourself out with one misthrown grenade. You'll be running short on ammo frequently and scavenging as you can't carry much. You'll be driven towards playing more tactically and carefully, relying on your sidearm to save the ammo of your more powerful weapons. Ambushes and the unexpected rare monster variants can be painful. Many of the Project Malice monster variants have their own custom behaviour and abilities and your ignorance of them will add to the challenge.

Edited June 19, 2022 by flamming_python

[flamming_python]

Name: NeoCore: Auger Zenith

Source Port: GZDoom

Wads/Mods: (in this load order)

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=69741

Description:

While you're waiting for that mod-turned-game Selaco to be released, how about playing something that's basically a cross between that, and those 90s cyberpunk games that mixed in some vampires or demons into the mix such as Shadowrun or Bloodnet? Well at the very least this is the closest approximation to what you end up with if you mix the Auger;Zenith wad with the NeoCore: Dark Depths mod. And I have to say, the later fits the other like a glove. It's very much as if you're playing some new game on the GZDoom engine. A whole 22 levels of it. Who needs to splash out on Steam eh?

Settings:

Mouselook on, crouching/jumping off. Crosshairs on. No texture filtering, light mode standard. Put all the dynamic lighting options, shadowmaps, lightmaps, whatever - to the maximum your rig can handle. Enable all the bloom, ambient occlusion, lens flare, etc.. you can too. You want to get all those neon & colour-saturation juices flowing.

Incompatibilities: 

The archvile seems to be un-replaced, and what's more his flame effect doesn't encompass the player. Now I don't know if the archvile is or isn't replaced by the NeoCore mod at all; could be that he isn't. And changing the load order doesn't have any effect. But the flame engulfing the player being missing is weird; there's just a tiny flame at your feet instead.

That possible oddity aside, everything seems perfect.

Performance: 

Any somehow recent computer should be able to handle this combo at max settings.

I'd place a bet against playing it on a mobile device though, even the highest-end ones. The majority of the time this wad isn't that demanding, but when it does get demanding is also precisely the last moment you would want to experience severe choppiness at - you're going to die when that happens. Some of the large ambushes will produce major amounts of projectiles and effects from all sorts of flashy enemies; and there are also some maps with tons of foes in open areas.

Difficulty:

What you'll find is that some projectile-based Doom enemies will be replaced with hit-scanners, the baron of hell with a nimble & tanky plasma trooper, the pinky demons will be replaced by this claw thing that closes distance to you in a split second and will eviscerate you if you don't see it coming, the cacos will be replaced by some flying mechanical menace that unleashes rocket barrages at you. It's painful, just painful. And an occasional encounter or ambush can feel unfair; the one at the end of the first map for example.

Thankfully the deadly ambushes aren't a regular feature. 19 times out of 20, it does feel balanced, you just have to get used to the style of play and learn your weapons better. Another thing are the lootboxes some enemies drop - make sure to use them and open them up, get the goodies. Use the doom marine corpses lying around too, they also have stuff. Didn't figure that one out at first myself.

Make sure to drop the difficulty a skill level or two if you're having trouble on the first level.

Edited June 21, 2022 by flamming_python

[Somniac]

I was really hooked on Dark7 with the Sin weapons mod for a while years back. Just seemed to go really well together. 

[flamming_python]

Name: Duke in Doom: Going Down

Source Port: GZDoom

Wads/Mods: (in this load order)

https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?t=67864

https://www.moddb.com/games/doom-ii/addons/steves-flashlight-mod

 

Description:

Duke Nukem has got those alien bastards on the run, but now they've taken over the UAC skyscraper and are opening portals to hell. It's up to to Duke to enter the building Die Hard style, clean out the remnants of the alien invasion, and bust away the demon invasion before it really begins.

In many ways what the Bloom mod did for crossing Blood and Doom, this little crossover mod/wad combo all but succeeds in doing for Duke Nukem' and Doom. Yeah, it fits together that well, and would be entirely perfect were it not for the occasional encounter that feels either overly rough or too easy. The Going Down wad emulates the detailed, realistic environments of the Build engine games, implements level interactivity here and there, and some of its MIDI tracks even seem to be inspired by the Duke Nukem 3D OST.

Settings:

Mouselook on, crouching/jumping off. Set crosshairs and autoaim on/off according to how you play Duke Nukem 3D. Go for the Build engine retro look here but with hardware rendering. So no texture filtering, light mode set to build. Switch dynamic lights on, and let them affect sprites/particles, but keep shadowmaps off. No post-processing effects either. Set the resolution to 640x480 or an 16:9 equivalent.

In the Duke Nukem 3D options, set the mode of the doom enemies to alternate between sectors (so any given sector will either have Doom or Duke Nukem enemies at random). Set the movement style to Ntmai. Have Duke Nukem assets replace all the Doom decorations. Make sure the Dukebot replaces the Holoduke (you'll need it).

Adjust the screen size to a notch below the maximum to make sure you get the partial HUD rather than the full-size status bar

Make sure you bind a key to the flashlight too, you'll be relying on it in a few maps; most notably map 03

Incompatibilities: 

None that I really noticed, with the exception of map 08 where one of the Duke Nukem enemies that substituted a Doom enemy ended up being too tall for its vantage point on a crate and clipped into the ceiling, seemingly immobilizing the creature. But I only seen one instance of such a thing.

Performance:

I'd say you can run it on most things. This combo is really not that demanding 95% of the time. Yes there are a lot of projectiles, effects, gore - but the maps themselves are small and tight, and the monster counts are seldom over 100-200.

That said, mobile devices and lesser laptops both are going to struggle with a few of the slaughter maps towards the end of the wad. Particularly map 28; I'm talking about 1 fps here on my Nokia 8. Thing is though, there are only 2-3 such maps, and these are the same maps you're going to be wondering how the hell to ever beat even without the performance issues. The enemy hordes they produce are not exactly balanced for DN3Doom.. hence there can be no shame in skipping them with cheats outright.

Difficulty:

Well first of all it's already Duke Nukem 3D enemies you're dealing with half the time here. So that's already ouch! They naturally pose more of a threat than most doom monsters. However the Doom monsters are also changed by DN3Doom; I think the mod uses the same new AI as Brutal Doom. So yeah, you know what to expect. Still though, you're hardly defenseless. Strategic use of the Dukebot and laser tripmines will save the day in a lot of cases. Pipebombs around corners. Duke Nukem 3D weapons in general can pack a serious punch. You'll have trouble on the rooftop in the first level, but once you start acquiring a better arsenal things will ease up. On certain occasions, a fight can actually turn out easier than it should. Going Down is balanced around vanilla Doom monsters and their capabilities; so if say archvilles are replaced by Duke 3D enemies in a sector - then the encounter is trivialized. I'd say turn down the skill level by 1 if you face trouble past the first map.

Edited June 20, 2022 by flamming_python

[CherubCorps]

Just a few.

 

Augur Zenith + Rampancy  (Robots in cyberworld)

Unholy Realms + Naku-Naru (A surprisingly good combo)

Mayhem 18: Purple edition + SWWM (The color schemes goes well with the robutt. It's challenging with the easier maps, but also good for the slaughter sections. It also goes well with red, but I like purple more.)

Lost Civilization + Angelic Aviary (The peaceful open landscapes go well with the angel aesthetics. The levels also have lots of open sky which makes for a challenge with so many fliers.)

DBP 39: Carnage oasis + Iron snail (Desert tech base goes amazing with metal slugs weapons and baddies.)

Super Mayhem + Combined arms v2.0 (Ultra retro levels with one of the greatest weapon mods ever made.)

Lt. Typhon + Plutonia 2 (Duel jungle themes plus the mod gives you enough power to survive the really hard parts of P2)

Nobody told me about ID + Doom 2 the way ID did it (I put this in as a joke as the names are so similar. Surprisingly, the map and mod go well together.)

Hadephobia + Eriguns2 (Hell weapons in a very hell themed wad)

Nova 1 + Lithium (With the exception of a few levels near the end, Nova 1 is really good for RPG style doom mods)

 

Could probably come up with a few more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ArchVain]

Naku naru1.3 + pagodia but its hard

 

Atom rain x protocol 1.0 + diabolus X good combination

 

Slayer rampage + doom 2 IN HELL good hellish doom 2 maps

 

Uac ultra + Neocore 6.3 its looks like old fps game

 

[kinker31]

I mostly cycle between three mods:

1. Trailblazer, 'cause sometimes you gotta kill fast, and bullets too slow! Plus, the Double Deuce, Nutcracker, and Conqueror are the three perfect "Fuck everythign in this room in particular" weapons! (Helps that Fleshrend can two-shot Revenants, one-shot with the right upgrades, even!)
2. Guncaster, for all the maps designed to be difficult, but not to the point of slaughter. What better way to tell those Archvile hordes to go eat some rotten cactus pears than by blasting them in the face with a good spell, finishing them off with a few Matriarch rounds to the face? Oh, and the Blue Tiberium crystal upgrade? Pure, glorious death incarnate, especially if you get a certain suit and mask!
3. Russian Overkill, for when all else fails. Because sometimes you just wanna nuke everything in the map six hundred and sixty six ways from Sunday.

But sometimes, I get a strange, but pleasant hankering for:

• Project Burtality, as A. Saxton Hale Doomguy, and B. It's what Brutal Doom should've been from the start, if you ask me.
• Final Doomer+, because it's hard to imagine the wads supported with vanilla weaponry
• Smooth Doom, for those fully-vanilla map-packs (and because  e v e r y t h i n g  g i b s )
• Treasure Tech, especially for being able to tackle everything, the Kuma Shotgun, and m o n e y

[Drywtler]

On 1/30/2022 at 4:44 AM, Nefelibeta said:

superweapon.deh

where can i find this patch?

[Nefelibeta]

21 minutes ago, Drywtler said:

where can i find this patch?

Supposedly /idgame or anywhere like that

[eharper256]

You may like Walpurgis. Personally, I like to play it with 2048 Unleashed and EPIC.

[Andromeda]

On 7/11/2022 at 7:12 PM, Drywtler said:

where can i find this patch?

Here:

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/utils/exe_edit/dhe31

 

(it's the SUPRWEP8.DEH file).

[Pokemanic33]

I like the combo of Roguelike Arsenal (and its monster pack) with Obsidian-generated maps. Obsidian can make some pretty good maps but they still have that Oblige-ish feel, which I think goes well with the roguelike concept.